BRANTFORD – Wilfrid Laurier University’s Brantford campus will soon be home to two new faculties: the Faculty of Liberal Arts and the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences. The faculties, approved by the Wilfrid Laurier University Senate and Board of Governors, will be effective July 1.

The Faculty of Liberal Arts will house Contemporary Studies, Journalism, History, English, Youth and Children’s Studies, Human Rights and Human Diversity, Languages at Brantford and Law and Society programs. Programs in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences include Criminology, Health Studies, Psychology and Leadership.

“The members of the Brantford Academic Governance Working Group, and faculty members in Brantford generally, undertook a significant amount of work in evaluating the faculty structures for the Brantford campus, and ultimately recommended creating two academic faculties,” said Deborah MacLatchy, vice-president: academic/provost. “The Brantford campus now has an academic governance structure which fits with the changes in multi-campus governance approved by the Senate and Board in 2012 while simultaneously optimizing and maximizing opportunities at the Brantford campus.”

The changes stem from a Presidential Task Force on Multi-Campus Governance that was established in 2010 to meet the need for an overarching model of multi-campus governance, in response to fundamental shifts in Wilfrid Laurier University’s identity over the past 15 years. With the opening of the Brantford campus in 1999, Laurier became a multi-campus and multi-community university. Over the next several years, the Brantford and Waterloo campuses grew significantly, the Faculty of Social Work moved to Kitchener, and Laurier established an office in Toronto.

In addition to the creation of two new faculties, the Brantford campus will see three existing Laurier faculties operating on campus this fall. The Bachelor of Business Technology Management program in Brantford will be affiliated with the School of Business and Economics at the Waterloo campus, and the newly approved Bachelor of Social Work with the Faculty of Social Work at Laurier’s Kitchener location. Laurier’s Faculty of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies already operates as a multi-campus faculty and will add the new MA in Social Justice and Community Engagement to its Brantford-based MA in Criminology.

Because of the complexity of coordinating undergraduate student academic advising, coordination of the Brantford Foundations Program, and new program development in a multi-faculty and multi-campus context, two new associate deans, reporting directly to the VP Academic, will oversee program coordination (including academic advising) and development. A call for candidates for these associate dean positions will soon be issued.

When the two new faculties come in to place on July 1, Bruce Arai will become dean of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, and John McCutcheon will serve as acting dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts until June 2014 while a search for and appointment of a permanent dean is undertaken. Associate Deans for each faculty will also be named.

Arai joined Laurier Brantford as associate dean in 2003, served as acting dean in 2005 and was named dean of the Brantford campus in 2008. Before beginning his second term, Arai took an administrative leave in 2012, during which time McCutcheon served as acting dean of the Brantford campus. Previously, McCutcheon served as area coordinator, assistant director of the MBA program and associate dean of business.